Table Time Activity: Lego Name Game
Skill Check
Begin with handing your child the letters of their name in order for them to stacking on top of each other. Model saying each letter out loud as you stack them up.
See if you can encourage your child to stack the Legos as well; a silly way to encourage participation is to have a countdown and then blast your rocket ship up into space!
If successful so far, start again but this time say the next letter and see if they can identify it from 2 or 3 options.
Growing My Skills
If they are successful so far, try offering them all of the letters in their name at the same time and see if they can put them in order themselves!
If your child is ready for more of a challenge, try adding more letters to the mix and building rocket ship “word families.” These are usually 3 or 4 letter rhyming words, such as words that end in -at, -an, or -ad.
Floortime Play Activity: Five Little Monkeys Finger Play
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to spend time together in a playful, imaginative way. There should be limited structure and a lot of pretending.
Growing My Skills
First prepare materials (cut out monkeys) if time permits and lay on “paper bed.” If these materials are not available, use stuffed animals on the child’s bed.
Play Jumping Monkeys song using monkeys as props to act out the song. Have each monkey “jump” off the bed; gesture calling the doctor/bumping head.
Relaxation Time Activity: I AM Meditation
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to practice using positive messages as an everyday relaxation tool.
Growing My Skills
Read the book together.
Point at the pictures and emphasize those things that make you and your child unique.
Imitate the different things the people are doing in the book or label different characteristics of the humans you see.
Say the “I am Human” mantra to your child throughout your day to focus your attention on the here and now.
Discuss with your child the different things that bring them peace.
Creative Time Activity: Family Dance Party
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to spending time together in a playful, imaginative way. There should be limited structure so your child has a chance to explore their bodies and different dances from around the world.
Growing My Skills
Find wonderful YouTube videos of different dances from around the world!
Select a dance and get moving!
Movement Time Activity: Playground Games with Family
Skill Check
The goal of this week is to take all the skills blue birds have learned over the summer and combine them into a full game: Ring Around the Rosie, tag, hide-and-seek, and catch!
Growing My Skills
Switch directions during Ring Around the Rosie.
Play Tag outdoors running over grass.
Try ‘Freeze Tag’ and tell your child to stand as still as a statue!
Blow up a balloon and see how many hits you can keep it in the air. Use your hands, feet, or even your head!
Practice hitting a thrown ball with a bat. If you don’t have a bat, try using a broom or empty wrapping paper tube!
Play baseball outside using mats or rugs for bases.
Mealtime Activity: Food that Reminds me of Home
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to involve child in at least one family tradition surrounding food. Eating not required.
Growing My Skills
Shop and prepare traditional food. Child can participate in preparation or not.
Prepare a short story involving food prepared using pictures, social stories, verbal stories or printed books. Encourage child to sit for at least 3 pages of the story, referring to the physical food in front of them.
TIP: to encourage participation with the book and the food, ask your child to “point to (food)” in the story and “point to (food) on table” modeling the action for them.
TIP: Encourage your child to act out the story in front of them using the physical food.
Language Time Activity: How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight by Jane Yolen
Enjoy this fun, silly, and pragmatic language driven book with your child in order to target expressive and receptive language skills! After, reenact the book, pretending to be dinosaurs, utilizing appropriate pragmatic language to complete activities of daily living (e.g., getting ready for bed, brushing teeth, getting dressed, etc.). Take turns being the dinosaur, and identify whether the language was “thumbs up” and pragmatically appropriate, or “thumbs down” and needs some work.
Skill Check
The goal of this activity is to work on your child’s pragmatic language skills while completing activities of daily living, such as use of appropriate requesting, terminating, and commenting.
Growing My Skills
Work on receptive language skills by following 1-2 step directions, based on your child’s language level (e.g., put toothpaste in drawer and then turn off the light).
Expand this pragmatic language skill building and incorporate siblings or other family members.
Challenge your child’s expressive language skills and have them use language to explain why one of the “dinosaurs’” exchanges was not appropriate.
